This week: Community -- Premieres, renewals, cancellations -- This week in casts -- This week in cats

Alas, poor Community. I knew thee well.

I begin this morning with a message from Mark Greig, who reviews Community for us.

Hello faithful readers,

I’m sorry to have to announce that I will no longer be reviewing season 4 of Community. The loss of Dan Harmon and other key creative personnel has turned the show into a pale shadow of the one I fell in love with. Community under David Guarascio and Moses Port is just no longer a show I want to watch every week, let alone review. Allow me to sum up my feelings in altered song lyrics: They are trying, but they fail, and the jokes are flat and stale. As I stare into the void, of a show I no longer know. I’ll escape now from that world, from the world of Guarascio and Port. There is nowhere I can turn. There is no way to go oooooooonnnnnn!!!!!!*

Mark

P.S. I will still be doing retro reviews of season two this summer.
(*I listen to the Les Mis soundtrack way too much)

Premieres, renewals, cancellations, etc.

Okay, get this. A sitcom with Sir Ian McKellan and Sir Derek Jacobi as a couple? Fascinating, as Spock would say. No premiere date has been set as yet, but it will probably arrive this fall, and I won't get to see it until it comes out on DVD because I don't live in the UK.

I'm sure this won't come as a surprise you, but Cult has been canceled. Ah, Cult. We had such hope for you, and you disappointed us. No word yet on if the clamoring of Vampire Diaries fans will raise a certain character from the dead.

Bates Motel is getting a second season. I'm happy for them, and uninterested at the same time. Is that wrong of me? Tell me, readers. Is Bates Motel wonderful? Are you guys into it?

The powers that be at Breaking Bad, nearing the end of their critically acclaimed drama this summer, are talking about... a Saul Goodman sitcom. Yes, I love Saul Goodman. He's a terrific character, the slimiest of lawyers with his own unique joie de vivre. Do I want to watch him as center of a sitcom? Well, no. Do you think they could make it work?

A little movie news -- former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara is talking with Warner Bros. about doing a prequel to The Shining called The Overlook Hotel. Huh. The Shining is my favorite Stephen King novel, but I think I'm looking forward a bit more to the sequel King wrote that will be coming out in September. It'd be interesting if the movie was a hit and the book a flop, though, wouldn't it?

Game of Throne's Natalie Dormer has been cast as Sherlock's former amour on Elementary.

A certain part has been cast on Supernatural. I was actually rather ticked off to read this one, mostly because I was guessing that the character was someone we'd already met -- so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't click here.

You all may be aware of how much I love John Barrowman, star of the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood. He's currently playing a continuing role on Arrow. He is also a professional singer. And here you go, several Arrow cast members singing in the bathroom.

This week in cats

I often have no cat news. This week, it's an embarrassment of riches.

First and most importantly, my cat Spike has discovered Bach.

I was playing music on my laptop, and Glenn Gould's Bach toccatas came up in the rotation. I hadn't played that particular album in awhile but decided to let it play. I glanced over at the next chair, and Spike was sitting up at attention, staring fixedly at my laptop. And he sat there, unmoving, staring, completely into it, for a long time -- nearly until the end of the album, when he finally collapsed into nap mode. It was terribly hard to keep myself from laughing, mostly because of the type of cat Spike is.

Spike (guess who I named him after) has a lot of personality, but while most cats like music, Spike doesn't usually notice anything that doesn't involve food, treats, the birds on the balcony, or finding a warm place to nap. He's the sort of cat who scratches you not because he's mean, but because he assumed you were part of the furniture. My younger cat Fox (yes, as in Mulder) will often lie across my lap and rest his head on the laptop while I have music playing. But in the fourteen years he's lived with me, I've never seen Spike react to music.

Even cuter, there was an emergency in the middle of the night for one of my favorite acting couples who are also cat parents. Nina Dobrev took the photo; Ian Somerhalder and the unfortunate feline posed for the photo. I still find it adorable that they're a couple. No, I don't mean Ian and the cat.

That's it for this week. Opinions, raves, rants, questions? Post a comment!

13 comments:

I have to agree with you on the Saul Goodman sitcom. I love watching Saul on Breaking Bad. He's a wonderful element in that overall universe. But I'm not interested in watching an entire show about him. Go create a new universe, Vince Gilligan! It's time to let this one go.

Thanks for the link! I will be catching up on Spartacus recap/reviews over the next few weeks - the UK is behind the US, and I am behind the UK because of the whole month-of-hell thing. (Also Plebs suddenly appeared). But I'm getting there!

I'm really hoping that when nay-sayers see Natalie in Elementary, they'll stop complaining about "BUT SHE'S A WHITE ACTRESS!" Granted, most of these people also often say "I haven't seen her in anything, but..."

There is a Game of Thrones game on Facebook which is actually quite amazing. I played it for a few hours yesterday and I was hooked. It's called Game of Thrones: Ascent.